In conventional offset printing presses, such as the 9000 series manufactured by AB Dick Corporation, the paper deck which is located at one end and which acts as a magazine, upon which stacks of unprinted paper are loaded, must be manually handle wound up or down in elevation according to the number of sheets of paper that are to be printed. To manually handle wind down a paper deck on such an offset press, from the maximum top elevation, where all the unprinted paper has been exhausted, to the maximum bottom position, upon which the maximum height of paper can be stacked, may require fifty or more turns on a manual handle at the side of the press.
In operation, the paper deck is loaded with a stack of blank paper to be printed and the handle is wound to set the elevation of the paper deck to accommodate the given number of sheets to be printed. The offset press then begins to print the sheets of paper in turn and automatically raises the elevation of the paper deck, as each sheet of paper is withdrawn in series from the stack of paper on the paper deck. The elevation of the paper deck gradually rises, until it reaches a maximum height elevation, at which point the stack of unprinted paper is exhausted. A catch release, located on the side of the offset printing press, must then be tripped manually in order to enable the printing press operator to manually handle wind down the elevation of the paper deck and thereby restore it to a position for loading another stack of paper to be printed.
Manually winding up or down the elevation of the paper deck, by turning a manual crank, is time consuming and labour intensive.